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June 25, 2009

Probe: Insurers Force Consumers to Overpay Billions in Health Costs
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A congressional probe has found private health insurers have forced
consumers to pay billions of dollars in medical costs that the insurers
should have paid. In a new report, the Senate Commerce Committee says
insurers have relied on faulty databases that have led to underpaying on
millions of valid claims for out-of-network medical care. Patients have
been forced to make up the difference. The report says the databases’
errors were easily disguised because insurers have failed to properly
inform consumers on how they calculate charges for out-of-network costs.
The databases are owned by a company named Ingenix. The firm has a
financial incentive to underpay consumers: it’s a subsidiary of United
Health Group, one of the nation’s largest private insurers. In addition
to United Health, at least seventeen other leading insurance companies
have relied on Ingenix’s data.



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